After two wonderful months being temporarily hosted by our great friends and fine book purveyors at Black Squirrel Books, Sawdust is pleased to announce our new home at Bar Robo!

Located in Chinatown, steps away from the Arch, at 692 Somerset West, Ottawa, Bar Robo features cocktails, snacks, and non-stop shows in their beautiful and inviting space! (Bus service close-by on Route 11.)

Our first reading at Bar Robo will take place Tuesday, August 22nd at 7:00 pm, and will have a Double Veteran Feature displaying the skill of two of Ottawa’s most powerful spoken word artists, Blue and Apollo the Child!

Ah, Good Poetry Folk, we are delighted to announce that on June 21st, our ninth Sawmill Workshop and poetry reading, with Poem-Off Winner Jean Van Loon and Chris Jennings, will take place at the wonderful Black Squirrel Books and Espresso Bar! (Black Squirrel is located at 1073 Bank Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Tel: 613-422-9050.)

This beautiful venue, aside from holding the literary treasures of your dreams, nestled in its aisles, is the home of our much esteemed and beloved fellow reading series, TREE! On June 27th, TREE will host Griffin Poetry Prize nominee Hoa Ngyuen as well as Hot Ottawa Voices authors, Nina Jane Drystek, Robin McLachlen, and Sarah Macdonell!

Celebrate the solstice and get your summertime poetic fix at Black Squirrel!

Sawdust was delighted to participate in Versefest 2017, hosting readers Steven Heighton and Louis Bertholom, a figurative and a literal rockstar of poetry! We were moved by the emotion of Betholom’s recitation and wowed by the punch of Heighton’s work!

An enormous and heartfelt congratulations to Jamaal Jackson Rogers (AKA JustJamaal), and Andrée Lacelle, our freshly inaugurated English and French Poet Laureates of Ottawa!

Thank you to everyone who helped organize this wonderful annual event, from the board and readers, to the volunteers. Thank you to the guests who continue to demonstrate what a thriving literary culture we have in the Nation’s Capital!

Sawdust is once again proud to participate as a host reading series at Versefest Ottawa 2017! At 9:00 pm, on Sunday, March 26th, Sawdust will host a bilingual event with Steven Heighton and Louis Bertholom at Knox Presbyterian Church (located at 227 Elgin Street, in Ottawa).

Steven Heighton received the 2016 Governor General’s Award for poetry for The Waking Comes Late. His poetry and fiction have appeared in London Review of Books, Best English Stories, Best American Poetry, Tin House, Zoetrope, Poetry, Arc, and TLR, and have received four gold National Magazine Awards. His new novel, The Nightingale Won’t Let You Sleep, will appear this spring.

Louis Bertholom, a former rock singer, has published about 15 books (poetry, narratives) in different editions. He was one of the founders of Blanc Silex publishing house in 1995. His autobiographical account Le rivage du cidre was given a warm welcome when it was brought out in 2002. Reports on the local TV channels and interview on France Culture for Amerika blues, a book in which he speaks about Jack Kerouac’s celtic filiation.

He writes for a few poetry magazines and appears in 30 anthologies and collective works.He has recorded two CDs in studio, Ma seule terre and then Vents solaires which was awarded the Télégramme “Coup de Coeur” Record Prize. He has also made two DVDs one of which is recorded live with his musicians. He performs in recitals with professional jazz players who compose their music on his texts. He has contributed to several stage creations since 1979, even in schools with pupils of all ages and levels.

He has participated in international festivals. He has won the Xavier Grall Prize for the whole body of his work, and he is also the second finalist of the Camille Le Mercier d’Erm Prize for his book Mordre le monde and he is first finalist for “Bréviaire de sel”. Since 1982 he has been a member of Sacem and of the Breton writers association. Some of his poems have been translated into Breton, Czech, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), modern Greek and Arab (Morocco and Egypt where he is published).

Louis Bertholom co-organizes literary nights around poetry (“Les rendez-vous de Max”) every first thursday of the month in Quimper (Brittany); they take place at poet Max Jacob’s house (1876-1944) which was transformed into a bar and restaurant. He also co-organizes two book summer festivals in Fouesnant.

Immediately before this reading, Mark Doty will read, and Versefest will announce Ottawa’s two Poet Laureates!

For more information, including ticket purchases, please visit the Versefest website.

Parliamentary Poet Laureate George Elliott Clarke and Poem-Off winner Doug Dumais joined the Sawdust reading series for Black History Month on February 15, 2017 and absolutely transfixed the audience.

Clarke performed sections from his newest work Canticles I – monologues focusing on those who fostered the transatlantic slave trade, or who demonized the image of the Negro in the Occident; as well as those who struggled for liberation and/or anti-racism. See George Elliott Clarke perform here, accompanied by Assistant Director, Liam Burke, on guitar.

Thank you to all who participated and listened to this tremendous night!

Our Second Anniversary Show in September of 2016 saw the return of some of our fantastic features and contest winners, including (now Secretary/Treasurer) Mia Morgan, Robin McLachlan, Rusty Priske, am kozak, Susan J. Atkinson, Sarah MacDonell, and Jason Christie! We were wowed and enchanted by Steven Ross Smith’s reading. (To say nothing of his kindness and grace in discussing his work in sound poetry with us once away from the mic!) We even had a special treat when Steven was joined at the mic by jw curry!

In October, we were joined by the insightful Roland Prevost and Mary Lee Bragg. Mary Lee, enjoying recent publication in Bywords, was both funny and captivating inducing spontaneous applause several times. Roland was, as expected, mesmerising and he could have read to us all night. The warmth was overwhelming. This was a night of terrific energy!

November’s reading saw Gary Barwin join us, fresh off his Giller and Governor General’s nominations, along with Ian Martin! Gary brought us touching laughter, insight, movement and thoughtfulness! Ian’s brand of intelligent, self-deprecating humour never descends into the morose but remains always relatable and soothing. Special farewells were made to the great Leonard Cohen by many of our open mic performers, including a moving song by Director Jennifer Pederson and a breathtakingly beautiful family story generously shared with us by Michelle Debarats.

At our final reading of the year, a fine community spirit held us, indeed! Poem-Off winner David Collins kept us in elegant stitches before gently turning us over to the sublime phrases of the first stirring feature, Marilyn Irwin, who stilled us. (But not before entreating us to curse 2016, with its tragedies, away heartily!) With the honour of being our final feature of the year, Chris Johnson, with his excellent good humour, brought us poetry backdropped by memes, busted translations and a phone call to friend and fellow author, Sanita Fejzic to make sure she didn’t miss a thing (well, not much!)

As we head into 2017, we are so proud to continue to work to merge up and coming voices with well established authors for our literary community. We wish to thank everyone who has made Sawdust feel like a family, from our features, winners, and open mic-readers (many of whom have been our features as well), to our attentive and involved audience, to our stalwart bartender Rhys Desson, and to the friends and families of all of the readers and organizers who have shown their overwhelming support.

In particular, we would like to thank the following authors, community builders, and friends:

Sawdust is delighted to be celebrating our second anniversary with our amazing and diverse literary community! On Wednesday, September 21st, we will start with an open mic, followed by readings from some of our Poem-Off Winners from the Past year, before being joined by Steven Ross Smith!

Steven Ross Smith is a poet, fiction and non-fiction writer, a sound and performance poet, and an editor. He also writes reviews, interviews, and magazine features on the visual and literary arts. He has been publishing books since the 1970s, and was a member of the legendary sound poetry group Owen Sound. His most recent book, his thirteenth, the poetry collection Emanations: Fluttertongue 6, was published in 2015. He has written two librettos, and scripts for documentary television. Smith’s book fluttertongue 3: disarray won the 2005 Saskatchewan Book of the Year Award. The chapbook Pliny’s Knickers, a collaboration, won the 2006 bpNichol Chapbook Award.

Smith was the founding Director of Sage Hill Writing Experience in 1990 and served as Director of Literary Arts at The Banff Centre from 2008 to 2014.

Smith was the resident writer for one week this March at the Tinhorn Creek Vineyards in Oliver, BC. He is the Fall 2016 Writer in Residence in the Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture at University of Manitoba. He otherwise lives and writes in Banff, Alberta and on Galiano Island, British Columbia.

A few days before the start of Summer, Sawdust had the pleasure of hosting the tireless Amal El-Mohtar and Poem-Off Winner and local spoken word artist Daniel Mark Patterson (DMP), on June 15! The crowd was completely enchanted by Amal’s poems reflecting on Syria, perception, language, and her reading from The Honey Month. The audience was moved by DMP’s intensely personal pieces from The Penguin Manifestos: Poetic Ravings of A Social Misfit. We are hoping to lure these two back!

On June 29th, Sawdust hosted a special fundraising event – the launch of the poetry chapbook “the bird philomela” (by battleaxepress) in support of the Ottawa Rape Crisis Centre (ORCC). We heard 14 moving performances from authors focussing on the theme of women’s assaults and sexual assaults. The wonderfully attentive, generous audience packed the room from corner to corner. Over $600.00 was raised and donated directly to the ORCC that night. Sawdust Director, Jennifer Pederson, has released her powerful song with Sjef Frenken, “Epilogue: Beater” as a bandcamp fundraiser, all proceeds of which will also be sent to the ORCC.

On July 20th, JC Bouchard hosted our second Sawmill workshop, teaching us the life of poems, before flooring the crowd with his own work: driving, wry, relational, quietly confrontational, full of bones and questions. Sarah McDonell, a brilliant new arrival to Ottawa, stunned us with long pieces on the deterioration of the domestic and a work in progress, the ultra organic, beautifully tense “the lithium body.” JC and Sarah were met with fierce applause!

Coming August 17th, Sawdust will host the sublime Frances Boyle and a yet to be determined contest winner. Frances’ poems, smooth, elegant, and inviting, are sure to capture the imagination. Facebook Event here.

We would like to especially recognize the contribution that our audience makes, not only as such gracious, attentive, and active listeners, but also for their excellent contributions to the open mic.

We look forward to seeing you all again soon! Bring your fans, get your cold drinks, and soak up the poems at Sawdust!